DNA Testing - know the In's and Out's of it. Genetic Genealogy, a new branch of genealogy combining genetics and traditional genealogy research, is the most accurate tool for the family historian. Family connections can be proven or disproven. DNA testing can support a paper trail which is often in question given the lack of surviving records. Its popularity grows daily with thousands testing monthly throughout the world.

06 May 2014

Family Tree DNA: myOrigins Replaces Population Finder

Family Tree DNAis launching its new version of Population
Finder which provides percentages of your ancestral origins and is termed myOrigins. It will
be available to everyone who has taken the Family Finder test or who has transferred
from other autosomal databases in a few days. The feature will in beta testing for now. As with any major change, beta testing is
necessary in order to find all the hidden bugs, so have patience and report any
problems you see using the e-mail provided (myorigins@familytree.com) until the support staff is ready for your questions until the official launch.

GAPs can view now!

At the moment the project administrators can sign into their
GAP pages and click on the link in the upper left to get familiar with the myOrigins
functions. GAPs will see a myOrigins
column in their Members Reports page for those who have taken the Family Finder
Test. Autosomal transfers will be able to view their myOrigins shortly.

Regions and Population Clusters

Thirty-six reference populations and 1,353 samples were used to establish the seven main
regions which are divided into a total of 18 clusters. Everyone is assigned to a cluster
and given your percentage breakdown. A
full-screen world map shows your particular clusters down to 1%. The map can be dragged in the desired
direction for viewing all portions.

Although you receive all your population clusters, your
matches only see what is shared with you up to three clusters. There is also a link to “opt-out” of sharing
your myOrigins information, if you wish.

European

European Coastal
Islands

European Coastal
plains

European Northlands

North
Circumpolar

North
Mediterranean Basin

Trans-Ural
Peneplain

Middle Eastern

Anatolian
Crossroads

Eastern
Afroasiatic

North
African Coastlands

Jewish Diaspora

African

Easter
African Pastoralists

Kalahari
Basin

Niger-Congo
Genesis

Central/South Asian

Eurasian Northeast

East Asian Coastal Islands

New World

Bering
Expansion

Exploring the myOrigins
World Map

In the upper left of the world map is your percentages for
each region. By clicking on that region,
either on the name of it or the small dot to the left of the bar graph, you can
see the various clusters you match within that region. The smaller the
percentage you have for a cluster, the lighter the shade of the given color. If you are European and you click on the bar,
you may see European Coastal Islands, North Mediterranean Basin and North
Circumpolar. You can only open one
region at a time; however, the link Expand All below the bar graphs allows you
to see all at the same time. Clusters
shown in gray are other regions that were not expanded in your chosen view. (All screen shots from FTDNA's webinar, 5 May 2014)

On this world map (see above), there is a chart in the lower left. On this chart are two tabs: SHARED
ORIGINS and MY ANCESTRAL HISTORY.

SHARED ORIGINS lists the columns: Names, Relation and up to three cluster areas
shared by you and your match. The chart
has a filter which is the same on the Matches and Chromosome Browser pages for
your autosomal test. Speculative matches
are not included, however. You can sort any column in chart by clicking on
headings, and a search function is on the left of the box which defaults to ALL
MATCHES. The name of your matches and an
icon to e-mail them is provided. Under Relation you will see the relationship
range, but if there is a check mark just before that suggested range, you know
you have determined the relationship all ready.

MY ANCESTRAL HISTORY provides an overview. However, by clicking on one of the clusters,
the Ancestral History section provides more detail about that cluster. Although the graphic
is where the concentration is, the written narrative for each cluster goes geographically
farther. For example, the European
Coastal Islands cluster includes all the European Islands from the far north
down to the Azores Islands, although you will not see it included in the
graphic. There was much mixing of
European populations so populations for coastal islands are even found on the
mainland. In another example, Jewish Diaspora is centered in one area and
focuses on Ashkenazi Jews (a distinctive group) as it is not possible to point
to all the places where the Jews fled. Other areas were a bit isolated, but
most have loose boundaries in reality.

Remember, nothing is really, really pure; there was movement
and mixing. These are estimates and
cannot be drawn perfectly. The graphics are the concentrated areas. For this reason, it is important that you read the
narratives about each cluster to see what other geographic areas are included. Although
from your webpage you can only see the information on the clusters that pertain
to you, FTDNA will provide information on all the clusters in their Learning
Center shortly.

At the bottom right are two map pins that appear as balloons
which turn on or off the direct paternal or maternal lines of origin. Orange is
paternal; blue-green is maternal. By
clicking on one of these you will see balloons throughout the map showing where
the match has their most distant ancestor, much like the previous map at Family
Tree DNA. By clicking on the balloon you
get the name of the match and their percentage of the clusters which you have
in common with them (See example in the middle of this map).

Below these two balloon pins, there is a plus (+) and minus (-) sign
to allow you to zoom in or out, changing the size of the map.

The link in the upper right, just under the word just under
myOrigins, returns you to myFTDNA (your webpages).

As more high-quality data-sets are available regions may be
broken down more.

White Paper

In the near future, Family Tree DNA will post the White Paper which contains the methodology and reference populations used for myOrigins at their Learning Center. Here you will find much more detail than these few bullet points. Visit the Learning Center and notice Recent Works at the bottom.

Sources used for myOrigns

FTDNA customer database

Human Genome Diversity Project

International Hapmap Project

Estonian Biocentre

Reference Populations are listed with number of samples in the White Paper.

11 comments:

I just received my Origins results and I'm a little confused. I recently also do Ancestory.com to compare and was shown 80-82% native american, but on this I was shown 53% "new world", 17% east asia, are they counting these separately now, which would mean that combined it's still around 80% Native or is Ancestory.com completely off?

Yes, Robin, Family Tree DNA is separating Native American from East Asian when possible and if it applies. Each company has their own system for population origins. Over time any of these percentages could vary as more information is learned.

Thank you. I just received my info from my results of my HaploGroup A2-C64T. Extra mutations: 315.1CT3150CG3918AT4418CA7124RG11016AT14783CA16299GC16519THow do I figure out what these mutations mean? See anything of interest here. I am adopted from Nicaragua and no absolutely nothing about my past. Thanks!

Robin, the haplogroup A2 indicates you are African American. The numbers in your series are the names of the markers. The letter before the number is the nucleotide (base) that is that of the reference sequence. The letter after the name of the marker is what you have in your DNA. You might well benefit from ordering my book from Amazon.com entitled Genetic Genealogy: The Basics and Beyond.

My maternal grandfather's Population Finder results were 83.58 African and 16.42% European, both with plus or minus 0.10%. 83.58%+ 16.42%=100%. The myOrigins result is 86% African, 14% European and 1% New World (Native American). 86+14+1=101. I am not sure if that 1% is significant,or why Population Finder assigned none. We like most other African Americans, have no proof of any ancestors intermingling with native Americans (As Dr. Henry Louis Gates,Jr. reminds us) and most African Americans who do have some proof of native American ancestry, such as five nations freedmen descendants and other AAs living in parts of Louisiana,Mississipi or Alabama, are generally assigned at least 2% Native American on these tests (I have a facebook friend from Louisiana with documented genealogy of a Native American ancestor, and he has done all three of the big companies and was given 2% on myOrigins and a higher percent on the other two companies). My grandfather was assigned 0.9% Native American on 23andme as well as 0.5% Southeast Asian. Most AAs are given these minute results, and there has never been an explanation why this is. I believe it is because there are not many reference populations for West Africans, which is not good for African Americans because they are blended with several ethnic groups throughout West Africa, and the algorithms can not read all the markers as West Africans so to the algorithms a very tiny piece of it resembles NA which is even more underrepresented (thanks in part to the refusal of United States Native Americans and Canadian First Nations to take part in DNA, and because the companies only have a small number of samples from a small like five Indigenous groups of South and Central America). 23andme also could add to their Southeast Asian groups. I came up with this theory because before 23andme came up with their update last November, they were assigning most African Americans 1% or less "East Asian" along with 1% or less "Native American", and after their update where they improved their East Asian database, the "East Asian" results disappeared and were replaced by "Southeast Asian". I might be digressing a bit, but just describing the my Origins result. I have been told by a couple of folks that the reason why the myOrigins results total 101% instead of 100% is because of rounding, though we are not sure what they tried to round, could it the "New World" result? Since it was 0.9 on 23andme, maybe myOrigins should have left it unreported. I read that FTDNA is using a different algorithm altogether, as opposed to the other two companies who kept theirs when they updated, so maybe that's why this "rounding" happened.

One would have thought that FTDNA would have added to their reference populations, not decrease them. What were they thinking? Population Finder had Yoruba and Mandinka for their West African, now they just have Yoruba. African Americans are blended with different West African ethnic groups, not all of it is going to fit with just one group. I have seen their reference populations list and noticed that some of the non-European references such as Yoruba have a larger number of samples. Yoruba has 136samples, but again African Americans are blended with several different ethnic groups from western Africa, even if they had a 1000 samples of just one West African reference, it is still just one West African reference.Whereas Population Finder had error margins, but myOrigins doesn't. Shouldnt they have included error margins?

I see that myOrigins has improved for those of predominantly to completely European descent (and let's be honest, those testers are going to get more from these companies than other testers),and even for Europeans it is still behind the other two big companies, but for other testers, I don't think these months of waiting was really worth it.

Yes, Anthony, Robin tends to be a female name, but it can also be a nickname for Robert as well as a male given name. I have no idea of Robin's gender and you are right about A being different for males an females.

I have not published all your other comments, and I suggest you write Family Tree DNA for more information and clarification on your situation. Also read the White Paper (see my blog).

Robin, everyone with Native American ancestry is being broken up into New World-Bering Expansion, East Asian-Asian Northeast, and European-North Circumpolar. That's in order from greatest to least. There are posts about it at http://forums.familytreedna.com/forumdisplay.php?f=218

HaploGroup A2-C64T is mtDNA and it is not African. It is Native American and East Asian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_A_%28mtDNA%29

Robin, each testing company does population comparisons based on the groups with whom they wish to use for comparison. Some evaluations are better than others, so there will be differences. REGARDLESS, please consider population comparisons NOT to be totally accurate. They will vary over time as this area of interpretation is refined as well as the comparison populations are improved.

Emily Aulicino

Genetic Genealogist

Welcome to My Genetic Genealogy Blog

Genetic Genealogy is a wonderful resource for the family genealogist or historian and is growing daily! From time to time I will post URLs and books that can be helpful. My blog is my personal venture and is selective in its contents. It is not a reflection of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy.

I am the Northwest Regional Coordinator for the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG*) and manage twelve DNA Projects and several email lists on Rootsweb and Yahoo. I am available to speak at any function regarding Genetic Genealogy and on writing one's memories and family stories. ......For my DNA Projects, I prefer using Family Tree DNA. You can order a test kit by clicking on the FTDNA logo below.

You are welcome to email me at: aulicino@hevanet.com using the Blog's name in the subject line, if you have any comments or questions.

-------*ISOGG is a non-profit organization designed solely to promote and educate the public about DNA testing in regard to genealogy. Membership is free, but tell them that Emily sent you! See: www.isogg.org --------------

Best wishes and visit often,Emily

Presentation Topics

Introduction to Genetic Genealogy: DNA Your Paper Trail

Autosomal DNA and Chromosome Mapping

Becoming a DNA Project Manager

Care and Feeding of a DNA Project

Establishing a DNA Interest Group

Writing Your Childhood and Family Memories: A simple technique

NOTE: Custom Topics available upon request

Genetic Genealogy: The Basics and Beyond by Emily D. Aulicino

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To Order at DNA test kit from FTDNA through this blog

...1. Click on the FTDNA icon search button (above)....2. Enter the _(your surname here)_ surname in the upper right where it says: SEARCH...3. On the next page, click on the surname you chose in #2....4. Follow any instructions. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on JOIN.

NOTE: If you are not certain there is a DNA project for your surname or if you are only testing your mtDNA (female line), put the name: CAMPANIA in the search field. This is one of my projects, and I will find you an appropriate project when your results arrive...........You want to join through a project to get the cheapest rates.

To subscribe, click on POST arrow.

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Presentations

.....Presentations for both the Genetic Genealogy and for the writing sessions are normally two hours, but can be adapted. I prefer an computer projector for with a screen and a table for displaying my DNA book and/or writing booklet......Your group can photocopy the handouts or I will do so for $.05 per side. If speaking within the general area of Portland, Oregon I do not charge for mileage or travel expenses. Outside of the general Portland area, I do require the IRS amount of $.56 per mile. If I need to stay over night, a motel room or staying with a non-smoking female will be necessary......Although, as a member of the International Society of Genetic Genealogists (ISOGG), I cannot ask for a speaker's fee for the Genetic Genealogy presentations, but I can accept an honorarium. This is not the case with the writing classes. $75 is the standard.Email: aulicino@hevanet.com

Recommendations and Compliments

Genetic Genealogy

"Emily Aulicino is one of the most dynamic people I know. Her energy and enthusiasm has helped make Oregon the largest member per capita region in all of ISOGG. Emily’s educator background is apparent and complimentary to her speaking engagements which create a presentation that is easy-to-understand for any novice. Her reputation has made her an immensely popular speaker throughout the Pacific Northwest which has resulted in nationwide requests. Emily is a proven leader who welcomes a challenge. She manages many people and projects with skill and ability that can only be innate. I have the utmost confidence that Emily will excel at any task presented to her and I look forward to many more years working with her."-------Katherine Borges, Director of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG)

Unsolicited Comments:

Barbara in Washington wrote:I just wanted to touch base with you and tell you how impressed I was with your lectures today. They were fun and up, and you were able to explain the DNA process to me in terms that I could understand.

"Memoing" My Memories

130 Topic Booklet for Sale

"Memoing" My Memories - Unsolicited Testimony

Rhonda in Oregon writes:The writing tip you gave us Thursday is great! I went right to my stash of journals (I have trouble journaling, but love the books!), and made a page for every year since my birth year.I’m very excited to start writing my memories down. Thanks again for a fantastic tip!!

Anne in Michigan writes:"So many times I have sat down and tried to write out my life's story. I got so bored with myself that I never got more than a few pages done. This method has totally changed my outlook and has renewed my lifelong interest to write about my life so that my children will have something to remember me by.I am psyched, pumped and ready to go now!”

Beth in Texas writes:“I am finding the topics very helpful in writing about things I would have never thought about before. These topics give me an opportunity not to dwell on the unhappy times in my life, and remember some of the less important, but memorable topics that I'd like to pass on to my children. I'll still write about unhappy times, but they will be sprinkled in with other memories.”

Jan in Kentucky writes:“Emily, you do so very much for so many, and it is so appreciated! You also have broken my writing block, and I appreciate that...if not for you, I don't know that I would have had the heart to return to it. You truly are doing a lot of good with that list of yours and the effects will be known for years and generations for so many. I think sometimes we just need to tell you that.”

Bob in Sherwood, Oregon writes:THANKS to you I started writing my "story" last Friday. If it wasn't for you I probably wouldn't have started it. It's all your fault...You, You, "Inspirator", You! Telling usto write in "pictures". If I started it prior to your presentation it would have begun... "I was born on October 29, 1944 in Jamestown, New York". Needless to say you had a GREAT impact on my writing.

Bill in New Jersey writes:Just a short note to says thanks to you, Emily, for the prompts. I especially like the way in which you write the suggestions to go along with the prompts.

Books About Childhood Memories and Family Stories

As most of you know I seldom read fiction, and as a result, I am interested in books that are historical in nature and/or tell the stories of people's lives. The following list is some books that I have read which are by people I know, people who are related to me, people I have met, and people with whom I've corresponded for a time. Proudly, I have each author's autograph, and I'm beginning to think of this as a new collection/hobby of mine! .

Each of these stories have great struggles and challenges. Some are of childhood while others occurred when the author was an adult. I hope that you will find them interesting as I have. They are truly a slice of our American Life!

Childhood Shadows: The Hidden Story of the Black Dahlia Murder by Mary Pacios

Son of Scarface: A Memoir by the Grandson of Al Capone by Chris W. Knight

Run Jane Run: A True Story of Murder and Courage by Jane Wells

Somehow, We'll Survive: Life in Japan During World War II Through The Eyes of a Young Caucasian Boy by George Sidline

About Me

Emily is available for Presentations regarding Writing Your Family Memories and Childhood Stories.
----- Learn to WRITE ABOUT YOUR CHILDHOOD AND FAMILY MEMORIES using a quick and simple technique. Learn various organizational ideas and writing tips. ------- BOOK FOR SALE on writing your memories at workshops or by mail (Spiral bound; 144 pages on heavy vellum; 130 topics with writing tips and organizational ideas).
Emily is also available to give presentations on Genetic Genealogy. See the following blog for more information: http://genealem-geneticgenealogy.blogspot.com/
--------- EMAIL for further details on either topic:
aulicino@hevanet.com